Bookworm
by Winterburg
Summary: Daniel Winterburg is a mutant who has the ability to know everything about someone simply by touching them. Armed with only this power and what he can gain from it, Daniel aims to help mutants and humans alike in a world that hates and fears him.


-1A.N.: This story originally started out as a sample post for a X-Men RP forum, but I liked the character so much that I decided to turn him into a full story, as well.

Please note, although I didn't include it in the warnings/genre, this story will have a slightly gay focus (though not in this chapter). I didn't mention it in the warnings as it won't come up much for quite some time, I'd imagine, and it won't go past kissing as this isn't a sexual story. Also, its very, very likely that there will be hetro relationships and possibly lesbian characters within the story too. I haven't decided yet.

A metal door came slamming to the ground as Daniel kicked it open, unaware that two of the hinges were already broken and the third was barely intact. The boy stepped into the dark, dusty corridor and pulled a torch out of his coat, clicking it on and shouting 'Hello?' The dust that was stirred up by the falling door irritated Daniels throat, causing him to cough. He took a white cloth and held it to his mouth, shielding it from the dust and the odd smell that he was beginning to notice. Daniel stepped out from the night and fully into the corridor which was, if possible, even colder than the frost of the night. He pointed the torch up the corridor, showing several more doorways, some with doors still attached and all showing the age of the building. "It worries me," Daniel said to no one in particular "how often my jobs end in places like this, but what is more worrying is that places like this exist in the first place." He walked farther into the corridor and examined some of the graffiti and broken glass within it. "So Cliché."

He walked through the corridor straight to the door at the end, which was slightly ajar with a dull light coming through it. He made sure that the white cloth completely covered his hand before he pushed the door open. The less of himself he left here, the better. He walked into the room and found just what he was expecting. A small girl laid on the floor in a puddle of purple liquid. He skin was green and her hair an unnatural, unholy shade of pink. She was the mutant he was searching for, and she was very much dead. Daniel crouched down next to her and examined the body. Back in England, he could have saved this girl as easily as breaking an egg shell. He could have saved her and had her back with her family within hours. He'd lost count as to the amount of times he'd thought something like that since moving here. He turned his torch off, as the light dangling overhead provided enough.

"Monsters." A rough voice came from behind Daniel, in the doorway he just walked through, came. "Monsters. The whole lot of 'em. They should all be put to death like this one."

"Should I assume that by 'them', you mean the mutant race?" Daniel replied without allowing his anger, fear or sorrow infect his voice.

"Well I wouldn't exactly be talking about the Jews, would I?" The man retorted.

"No, no. Of course not."

"Lem'me guess, you're one of those pro-mutant rights nancy boys, aren't yeh?"

"Oh no. Just English." Daniel replied, assuming the 'Nancy boy' comment had been triggered by his accent. He thought for a few seconds as to how to deal with this man. "In fact, I agree with you."

"Y-Yeh do?"

"Oh yes. They should burn. All of them." Daniel said without his tone changing. He stood up and looked at the man. He was smaller than Daniel. Bald, with a dirty white vest on and jeans of an untellable colour. Daniel was beginning to wonder how many more clichés he'd be seeing tonight.

"Wow. It's been a while since I've met anyone who agreed with me." The man said quietly, clearly convinced that his actions here were justified.

"We are of a dying breed, my friend." Daniel stopped for a second, mainly to appreciate the irony of what he just said. "May I ask your name?"

"Meh name? Joe."

That made three Clichés and rising. "Well then Joe, my names Daniel, and I wish to shake your hand." He held out his arm to Joe. He intended on finding out how many mutant deaths he was responsible for before acting. Joe looked sceptical, but took the hand and shook. Knowledge went rushing into his head. The faces of three other mutants appeared in his minds eye. An elderly Japanese woman, a boy a year or two younger than Daniel and a man somewhere in between 25 and 30 years old. All three deaths had been caused directly by Joe. Daniel also saw two other men, friends of Joe who had assisted in these killings. "Well Joe. I suggest you leave now."

"Why's that?"

"'Cause I'm going to have to contact local authorities about this. While I may agree with what's been done here, I feel it better if we get it cleaned up. Don't you agree?"

"Oh. Yeah. I guess you're right." Joe turned to leave.

"Oh, and Joe-" Joe turned his neck to look at Daniel again intime to see Daniels fist come flying into his face, with the torch in hand for added weight. Joe went stumbling backwards and tripped over, hitting his head on the door frame and knocking himself out. "- you're an idiot." Daniel completed his sentence as he pulled a pair of black leather gloves out of his coat pocket and put them on. He grabbed Joe by his arms and pulled him back into the room. There was a radiator at the back of the room, which Daniel dragged him to. He propped Joes large body up against the radiator before reaching into his coat and pulling out the handcuffed he'd 'borrowed' from Detective Milburn earlier that day. He attached one cuff to Joes arm, threaded the chain through a pipe on the radiator and cuffed Joes other arm, trapping him.

Daniel pulled out a few things from the inside of his coat and sat on the ground. The first two objects were a pen and pad of paper, the third was a very old looking mobile phone. He dialled in a number as he began writing.

"Detective Milburn." Said the phone in a woman's voice.

"I found that forest sprite you were looking for." Daniel said.

"Bookworm."

"She's dead."

"Where?"

"An old abandoned… Building, I don't know what it was, just outside of town."

"The old Millar building?"

"It's possible." Daniel knew it was the Millar building, but he liked to sound distant to the detective. "It's not exactly hard to find. It's all big and dusty and has a dead mutant inside it. I've got the murderer locked up in here. You've still got the keys to those cuffs I stole right?"

"I knew it was you who took them!"

"Good. Then I'll be on my way. Good night Jade Milburn." Daniel heard Milburns attempts to protest but hung up anyway. He ripped the page he was writing on out of his note book. It contained two lists of four and three names. The first being the four mutants and the second being Joe and his friends. He left the note next to Joe before standing up He threw the phone on the floor by Joe and walked towards the door, taking one last look at the girl on the floor before going out into the cold of the night once more.


End file.
